The Tournament—Its Periods and Phases

by R. Coltman Clephan

The great armour-smiths of Milan at the period immediately under review were members of the Missaglia Negroli family, which, like many others, carried on their craft for several generations. The Germans have always been wont to borrow the inventions and processes of other nations, and then often to cheapen them; and so it was with body-armour. They gradually succeeded, under the personal inspiration and direction of the Emperor Maximilian, in transferring the bulk of that industry, even in the best harnesses, to German soil, until at length cities like Nuremberg and Augsburg became the chief seats of the manufacture; and indeed the bulk of the armours preserved to us of the later “Gothic” and “Maximilian” styles are of German make. That Maximilian engaged armour-smiths from Italy is seen by a contract made in 1494[99] with the Milan armourers Gabrielle and Francesco de Merate, to erect and equip for him a smithy in the town of Arbois, in Burgundy, to forge there a certain number of harnesses at fixed prices. The armour worn by Maximilian I at Worms, in 1495, in a combat on foot with the Burgundian, Claude de Vaudrey, bears the stamp “m,e,r,” surmounted by a crown, the Milan mark of these smiths, who came next in celebrity to the Missaglias.

Many ameliorations were conceived in the fifteenth century with a view to further minimizing the risk of serious accidents, and one of the most far-reaching and important was the application of the tilt in jousting. Many injuries had befallen the riders in the tourney by the collision of their horses, sometimes by accident, at others by design, and the idea of the tilt was conceived greatly with a view towards obviating this danger. The tilt, or toile, was at first a rope hung with cloth, stretched along the middle of the lists, but later it became a barrier of planks, along which the tilters charged in opposite directions, their bridle-arms towards it, their lances held in rest in their right hands on the tilt side of the horse’s neck, striking the polished, glancing surface of their adversary’s armour at an angle. The tilt had the advantage of lending a fixed direction to the jousters in their careers, though they often failed to touch each other. With the danger of these collisions removed, the knight ran his course with but little risk.

Jousting in the open with pointed lances was, however, continued by a hardier type of jousters until long after the introduction of the tilt; and here the saddle was without cantle, so as to offer no impediment to unhorsing; and a cushion or mattress, stuffed with straw, was placed over the chests of the horses, to act as a buffer in case of collision. A rough game it was for a cavalier to be unseated and thrown to the ground in his heavy armour, sometimes carrying a weight of two hundred pounds; though his fall was broken by the ground of the lists being covered with thickly strewn sand or mulched with refuse from the tan-yard. This form was much practised in Germany, though strange to say but little harm would seem to have been experienced by the champions in their falls, greatly owing to the extensive padding of their harnesses. Other important departures in the direction of comparative safety were the designing of special forms of armour for the tiltyard, and the introduction of additional or reinforcing pieces, for doubly protecting those parts of the body on which the brunt of the attack fell, viz. mainly on the left side. They first appear in England in the reign of Edward IV. “William Lord Bergavenny bequeathed to his son the best sword and harness for justs of peace and that which belong to war.”

The vamplate of this century was much enlarged, for the protection of the lance-arm; and the steels of the saddles lent great protection to the bodies of the jousters below the breast. The effect of all this was to encase those taking part in the tourney in an almost impenetrable shell, from which they could barely see or do more than couch and aim their lances.

Armour for the lists became sharply divided from that employed for “hoasting” purposes, as harnesses for the field were called, though in what country the change had its origin, whether in Burgundy, Italy or Germany, is uncertain. It was in use in Burgundy in the year 1443, for we read in the account given in Mémoires D’Olivier De La Marche,[100] that during the time the necessary preparations were being made for the tournament held at L’Arbre de Charlemagne, Dijon, in that year, the young cavaliers practised jousting before the duke “et là furent faictes une jouste à selles plattes et en harnois de joûte.”

Harnesses for the lists assume different forms in Germany from those in Italy. In the first-named country in the case of the armour for jousting in the open, so to speak, the breastplate was flattened on the right side for better couching and aiming the lance, which was supported by a Rasthaken or queue behind, as well as by a lance-rest in front, while in Italy the cuirass continued rounded in form. The lance-rest (Rüsthaken) assumed various forms, though usually that of a curved bracket. Reinforcing pieces were employed in all courses.

There is another variety of armour which was used in Scharfrennen, [101] but it, with the others, will be particularly described and illustrated later on. Jousting at the tilt prevailed greatly in England, though abroad many other varieties were practised as well. Jousting lances were often painted or ornamented with party-coloured puffs of cloth along their length. Lance-heads assumed various forms, examples of which may be seen in several of the German museums and in the Tower of London. Illustrations are given by Boeheim.[102] The shafts varied in form, weight and thickness for the different courses.

The armour for combats on foot was made very strong and heavy, and so padded with under-clothing as to cause faintings and even deaths in hot weather. Foot-fighting was rendered much safer by the introduction of “barriers,” over which the champions fought, but they do not appear much before the sixteenth century.

The physical strain on those taking part in a tournament must have been great, and the combatants weary at the end of a long day; nevertheless they joined the ladies in the evening, when the successful competitors received the prizes from their hands; and after the banquet came the dance.

The century saw the mingling of the tourney with the pageant; the mêlée had been much supplanted by the joust, which demanded more individual skill, for in the throng and confusion of the mêlée the element of chance helped certain of the combatants to a distinction beyond their real deserts; while in the joust, which was a contest between two champions only, each had to stand or fall solely on his own merits.